Thursday, August 25, 2011

FROM THE RIVETED STUDIO ......OUR LATEST RECREATION

So here's another "recreation" from the riveted studio.This 40's stenciled sweatshirt, pays tribute to the US.Navy men who fought during the operation dragoon in the south of France....

PT 209:

On August 14th, the eve of the invasion of Southern France AKA operation dragoon,PT 209 was out on his first combat mission in several weeks in the Mediterranean . PT 209's role, along with several other Ron 15 boats, was to help guide the first troops in the invasion to their designated assault areas.

Thousands of airborne and seaborne troops were to land ahead of the main invasion to secure important locations including coastal batteries that could threaten the main assault force. PT 209's role was to act as a beacon, sliding into enemy territory and, at a predetermined fixed point, guide those first troops through the darkness.

Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944.It came in the later stages of the war and was overshadowed by the earlier and larger Operation Overlord that summer.The original plan was to invade on June 6th, 1944 while the troops were storming the beaches at Normandy but the plan wasn't meant to be for a single reason: there just weren't enough landing craft to get soldiers where they needed to be. Operation Overlord went off by itself, and southern operations were confined to Italy. Two months later, the men and materiel had been gathered for an assault. my grand father ,as a soldier in the first French army ,took part in the operation.

The invasion started with a parachute drop of the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by the amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army and by a force made up primarily of the French First Army. The landing caused the German to abandon southern France and to retreat under constant Allied attacks to the Vosges Mountains. Despite being a large and complex military operation with a well-executed amphibious and airborne component, Operation Dragoon ,perhaps because of its lesser number of casualties ,remains overshadowed by the Normandy invasion......